EXCLUSIVE: First look at how A. Lange & Söhne’s London monobrand store will look

With less than a week to go before A. Lange & Söhne opens its first standalone boutique in London, renderings of how the store will look have been released.

The 128 square metre, two storey, showroom is being run as a franchise by Wempe, whose London flagship is on the opposite side of Bond Street. The watchmaker also has a boutique in Harrods.

The renderings show the same attention to detail in a minimalist style for which Germany’s A. Lange & Söhne is known.

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“As the Bauhaus movement said: Form follows function. The architectural approach of the A. Lange & Söhne boutique also follows this principle – exactly like the watches – by uniting skill, materials and technology to form a coherent whole,” the company explains.

The philosophy of A. Lange & Söhne is reflected in several details. For example, the glass cabinets are fitted with high-gloss metal pilaster strips angled at 45 degrees, just like the frame parts of the watch movements.

The range of materials extends from steel, demonstrating a technically modern construction, through to natural stone, a homage to the home of the manufacture in Glashütte within the Erzgebirge mountains.

The UK has played an important role in the history of A. Lange & Söhne. When Ferdinand Adolph Lange began making pocket watches in Glashütte in 1845, the demand in his home country was limited at first. So he travelled to London to present his watches at an exhibition here – with huge success. His watches were more precise than the competitors’ models, earning him first prize and a medal as part of the fair.

After the exhibition, countries around the world began to show interest in the watches from Saxony. In the first few years, more than 90% of Lange watches were sold in England, Russia, France and overseas.